The leftward and other blatherings of Span (now with Snaps!)

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Now this is partisan blogging

The Alliance Party of New Zealand, of which I am a lazy member, has rejuvenated their website and it now operates like a blog, with comments allowed (and indeed encouraged) on most pages.

You may wish to check it out, or indeed add it to your feeds.

Some proper lefties to froth at, for those who feel Labour bloggers are merely providing empty calories for their nasty gnashers. My word, how many more metaphors could I possibly mix in that sentence!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

arrhhh, there's work ta' be done yet on ya span, what type of anarchist were ya again?..My type (the revolutionary dreamer one) wasn't included. Still Alliance ain't all bad, it's a shade of grey.

Insolent Prick said...

We don't pay attention to political "parties" that are so tiny as to risk deregistration at the next election.

Anonymous said...

why yes you are.

Span said...

jo, did you by chance mean to add that comment after this?
http://spanblather.blogspot.com/2007/02/you-spin-me-right-round.html#comment-7592117747329799983

IP, I'm curious to know if your "we" is royal? Either way, I'm not particularly bothered if you're not going to pay attention to the Alliance. Makes it easier for us to surprise you ;-)

Anonymous said...

Had a good look around the web site. All good solid stuff. Would like them to update the manifest. it is now 1/4 way through 2007. The manifest is dated 2005. Wish list items in the manifest like 4 weeks annual leave are accomplished so you can cross them of your list. Similarly the rail tracks are back in public ownership.

What I was looking for in particular was a list of accounts that show where the money for purchasing the private assets such as Telecom would come from or will this be compulsary aquisition with no compensation?

There are a lot of public social programmes and handouts. Where is the balanced budget to fund these not just for one year but the next ten?

Remeber the major companies wont be around to tax so the the onus will fall on the workers to pay for the social programmes.

Span said...

Gerrit, I strongly suggest you get in touch with Professsor Jim Flynn, a prominent member of the Alliance and the man who has done all the sums for us for years now. He's very determined that the Alliance is up-front about the costs of policies and where the money could come from.

I'm in a hurry right now, but have a look on the spokespeople page for his contact details and if they aren't there flick me an email and I'll send them to you.

Anonymous said...

Span, Mangere was mentioned some time ago as a possible Alliance target to get back into Parliament. With the demise of Field, are there plans for your party to run in a byelection or in 2008?

Anonymous said...

The point I'm making is (and I'm interested in how the Alliance will "balance the books") that this vital piece of information and the marketing of it, is not featured on the web site. Surely being so good it will be trumpeted near and far. Or is it that funding for compulsary aquisition of private assets is in there? Or if it is not in there does that mean aquisition without compensation?

I simply rue good marketing by ALL political parties.

If you want to convert people give them the details. They will sort out the "spin".

Bit like the Green and the repeal of S59 legislation. Good intentions but a totally mismanaged marketing campaign.

You cant sell on fear, people dont buy it.

Similarly on the Alliance web site. Greed is mentioned a number of times. Greed is used as a negative and fear adjective to descibe corporations (or verb - english is my second language)
Rubs people up the wrong way and doesn't convert into votes. Seeing most people work for or are supplied by or buy from corporates.

By the way Air New Zealalnd is now owed by the people again so another to cross of your list as achieved.

Not much feedback from the Alliance regarding plans by Labour (who are turning a decidedly purple colour - red to blue) to partly privatise SOE's.